What is it like to be a plastic surgeon in Korea?
Recently, Dr. Merdan and Dr. Mina's family were interviewed by a well-known Korean television station, telling their experience of struggle in Korea and the fruitful results they have gained.
Video loading...
Dr. Maerdan graduated from Xinjiang Medical University ten years ago with a clinical major, and during his internship at the People's Hospital, he found that the position of plastic surgeon was very scarce, so he went to Seoul National University in South Korea to study plastic and reconstructive surgery, and later won the Xinjiang Outstanding International Student Scholarship awarded by the autonomous region.
After receiving so much encouragement, he worked even harder, inventing the world's first artificial skin chip with human living cells, and published the results in the prestigious journal of natural science reports, while completing a master's degree.
After that, he returned to China to work in the plastic surgery hospital in Harbin for three months, during which time, in order to broaden his field of study and enrich his knowledge reserves, he applied for the National Public Doctoral Scholarship, and continued to study for a doctorate at Seoul National University after successful application.
During this period, under the leadership of the professor, he saw a very variety of cases, and had the honor of participating in the operation with the professor, publishing more than ten international papers before and after, and now he has successfully obtained a doctorate and continues to work as a postdoctoral fellow.
So what are the untold stories behind such a rich experience? The following is Dr. Meldan's statement.
Note: The following interview was conducted in May 2018 from the book "I Came from China: Overseas Xinjiang People"
▼
My father's family was nine brothers, and when my grandfather didn't let them go to school, my father stole firewood to earn money to go to elementary school, and went to the fifth grade. Just then, the state had a new policy, gathering educated people, my father went to sign up, and then he was sent to Beijing for further study, and when he came back, he became a principal.
As the eldest of my family's five children, there are fathers who are principals and mothers who are teachers, but in the face of excellent academic performance from big brothers and sisters, even if my studies are not bad, I am not so outstanding.
Fortunately, my mother especially believed in me, when others thought I was greedy, she believed that I could keep it, and always told others that I would definitely be better than many people in the future, giving me great spiritual support.
I've been really studying since I was in junior high school, and my goal of becoming a doctor inspired me.
Once people have a goal, they will unconsciously work hard to achieve it.
I went to prep in 2002 and met my wife.
She is very similar to me, and she also comes from a family where her siblings are better at studying than herself, and she also has the same dream of becoming a doctor and has the same goal of studying abroad. At that time, there was a Japanese teacher at Xinjiang Medical University, and we studied Japanese with him for four years.
I was going to japan to study surgery, and when I was about to go out, my professor said to me, why do you have to study surgery? In the future, there will be a shortage of plastic surgeons in China.
I thought about it for a moment, yes, and immediately decided to go to Korea. In fact, my parents didn't know this at first, because at that time they couldn't understand the plastic surgery thing, and I was afraid that they would vigorously oppose it, so I didn't tell them, and for several years, they always thought that I was studying surgery in Japan.
I went out six months before my wife and suffered a lot when I first arrived in Korea. Mom and Dad gave me just a little money, only enough for six months, and then I went to work.
Usually, the first step in studying abroad to work is to find a restaurant to wash dishes, I have also found a job of moving bricks, and sometimes joke that there are some buildings in South Korea and my credit.
I'll be listening to English with headphones on when I'm moving bricks, and I can't waste time. At that time, my wife and I were in two different cities, and we needed to take a train to meet her, so I took the train to meet her, and I had to go to work halfway, and when I came back, I took a bath on the train, and this lasted for two or three years.
People who study abroad are really not generally hard, you will see that friends in China have lived a better life, have a stable income, and have their own stable family, so every time I call them, I will feel sad, but it is this heartache that has become the motivation for me to continue to go to school, and to complete my studies very well.
There are also a lot of unmotivated people here. I remember that there were many Chinese students living in the dormitory at that time, some of them worked until they forgot themselves and forgot their original goals; some of them stayed in the dormitory all day with a large amount of living expenses given by their families to play games or travel.
In contrast, my wife is the kind of student who works very hard, often staying up late in the library to study, even the librarian advises her to go back to sleep, she does not return, and the administrator will often bring her some biscuits, drinks and so on.
She basically mastered the language in three months, more than I came half a year earlier. She first got a job handing out flyers, and when the language was better, she went to work in a restaurant, and that's how we earned our tuition.
My wife and I got married in 2009, and we love each other very much, and it's because there's a lot of ideological resonance that brings us together.
My wife was busy with my studies, even neglecting her own studies, and I have always been grateful to her, feeling that I have married the best wife in the world and married the right person.
We had our first child in 2013, which became the motivation for us to continue to work hard.
In 2018
In 2021
Our financial situation only got better after 2010, when I met a plastic surgeon in Gangnam who liked me and said that I was brave enough to come to Korea like this. Later, I followed him to work for him, and it can be said that my most substantial skills were learned from him.
He wanted me to stay and continue working for him, but I wanted to get a diploma more, so I kept applying to Seoul National University for further study. I applied five times and finally passed. This kind of joy ordinary people can't understand, it's really too happy.
In 2011, when japan was hit by the "3.11 earthquake", we contacted our parents and said that there was a big earthquake in Japan, and we had to go to a branch school in South Korea to round up the lie. But later, after we made some achievements, we still told my parents about the actual situation, and at that time my father laughed out loud, after all, he couldn't say anything more, but if he said it early, he would definitely be scolded to death.
Every time I call my family, I laugh and call, in fact, I often want to cry, but I must not let my family feel that they are not having a good time, and I cannot let them worry.
Now, I am on the national public assignment of doctorates, and my life is much better. But when I thought about it, I still couldn't help but sigh, at that time, I was actually almost unable to hold on, but I was not willing to go back, and I lied to my family, and my friends were watching...
Fortunately, I always had my wife's encouragement, so I survived. Without each other's encouragement, I don't think we would be where we are today.
— End —